Review of Battleground (1949) by Stephen C — 21 Nov 2012
Long before Band of Brothers "Wild" Bill Wellman made his version of the battle for Bastogne for MGM studios.
Studio head Louis B Mayer apparently hated the film and tried to stop its release .
Luckly for us sanity prevaled and we have one of the best war films of its type.
The film focuses on a platoon of soldiers who are called upon to defend the town of Bastogne during the Batlle of the Bulge in 1944.
Wellmans film is packed full of characters including a soldier with fals teeth who noise is one of the films funny parts and James Whitmore as a frost bitten and battle hardended sergeant who enjoys chewing tobacco and has the respect of the men he commands.
As with nearly all of Wellmans films the use of sound does more to convey the battle than the actual images.
This is possibly due to the fact the film was made on MGMs backlot and Wellman had constraints as to what he could show.
Its also easy to see that the makers of Band Of Brothers must of at least watched this film when they were making their version of the Bastogne Battle and this film has plenty of merits besides that link.
This review of Battleground (1949) was written by Stephen C on 21 Nov 2012.
Battleground has generally received positive reviews.
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